LifeWatch ERIC Presentation at University of Cyprus

LifeWatch ERIC Chief Executive Officer, Christos Arvanitidis, gave an online presentation to the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cyprus on 3 March 2021. The Zoom session was recorded and provides a convenient overview of LifeWatch ERIC’s mission, recent developments and what it offers to the scientific community studying the impacts of climate change in biodiversity and ecosystem research.

Dr Arvanitidis, who previously worked at Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, explained that research infrastructures do not do the research themselves, they supply the means for others to pursue their research. LifeWatch ERIC is a European consortium that provides e-Science research facilities so that we can all arrive at a deeper understanding of biodiversity organisation and ecosystem functions and services. In particular, the infrastructure allows access to:

• Open Data, also known as FAIR-compliant data, through innovative technologies;
• Reproducible analytics, so that workflows can be verified; and
• Mobilised communities, helping scientists to work across disciplines around the globe.

The seminar was introduced by Dr Vasilis Promponas, Head of the Bioinformatics Research Laboratory at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cyprus, whose research interests include large scale comparative genomics, a field that stands to benefit from the tools and service available through the LifeWatch ERIC portal. The University of Cyprus is a public research university established in Nicosia in 1989, which offers a range of courses to over 7000 students.

Please click here to access the CEO’s presentation.